Building the Future of Food & Beverage Manufacturing
The doors may have closed on this year’s American Food Manufacturing Summit, and the conversations continue to resonate.
On November 4–5 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, we brought together senior leaders in manufacturing, operations, quality, supply chain, and R&D from some of the most influential food and beverage organizations across North America. Over two focused days, attendees tackled the most pressing issues shaping the sector today — including end-to-end process optimization, automation and digitalization on the plant floor, food safety, sustainable manufacturing, workforce strategy, and supply chain resilience.
Whether you joined us in Chicago or followed along from a distance, this recap will walk you through the key themes, standout sessions, and practical takeaways that defined this year’s summit.
If you were with us on-site, consider this your highlight reel! And if you couldn’t make it, here’s what you missed — and why you’ll want to be part of the conversation next time.
The summit started with a welcome address from Tom Dailly, Mayor of the Village of Schaumburg. We then had Katie Holman, VP Supply Chain, Meals and Baking at General Mills deliver opening remarks as our Room 1 emcee. We were also joined by 3 more emcees for our breakout rooms which included Catherine Davidson, VP, Supply Chain, Food Safety and Quality at Pepsico, Sabra, Takashi Nakamura, PH.D., VP, Corporate R&D and Food Safety at Fresh Del Monte, and Tracy Joshua, VP, External Supply Chain at Kellanova.
We kicked off with a keynote from Eric Seip, SVP Global Operations & Chief Supply Chain Officer at Ingredion, who shared how Ingredion is transforming its global operations and evolving toward a unified global supply chain model. Eric highlighted how digital tools are enhancing end-to-end visibility and decision-making, enabling strategic sourcing, lean practices, and cost optimization at scale. He also reinforced the importance of embedding safety as a non-negotiable standard across every touchpoint, and aligning supply chain initiatives with Ingredion’s specialties-focused expansion to stay ahead of dynamic market demands.
Next, Shannon Bible, Chief Transformation Officer at WK Kellogg Co, and Jon Kucinski, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Kellanova, explored what it truly means to unlock growth through enterprise transformation. They discussed building transformation programs that drive long-term enterprise value, the importance of aligning strategy, people, and processes, and how intentionally shaping culture can prevent fragmentation. Their session emphasized bold, decisive action as a catalyst for innovation and sustained growth.
Rounding out the morning, Michael O’Laughlin, CEO of Vanguard Renewables, reframed waste as a strategic lever for efficiency, risk reduction, and brand protection in the food supply chain. He connected waste practices to regulatory compliance, supply reliability, and stakeholder trust, while showcasing how smarter waste strategies support long-term decarbonization and sustainability goals.
After a high-impact morning of keynotes and plenaries, attendees moved into Refreshments, Networking, and Pre-Arranged 1-2-1 Meetings. This was a focused window for executives to sit down with peers and solution providers to compare strategies and turn big ideas into actionable recipes for their own operations., and translate insights into action.
From there, the program shifted into focused stream sessions across four rooms, allowing delegates to dive deeper into the topics most critical to their businesses.
In Room 1, Fernando Garcia Vidal, VP, Engineering at Monogram Foods explored how engineering can be the engine of zero-loss performance. By blending lean principles with resilient project delivery and smart facility design, he outlined a “no-waste” recipe for efficient, flexible production that can keep pace with evolving market demands.
Meanwhile, in Room 2, Juanfra DeVillena, SVP, Quality Assurance and Food Safety at Wayne-Sanderson Farms showed how data and analytics are becoming essential ingredients for modern food safety. With real-time monitoring and predictive insights, teams can move from reactive checks to proactive, data-informed quality control.
The conversation then turned to innovation in Room 3, where Scott Komar, SVP, Global R&D at Driscoll’s highlighted how genomics, sensory science, and data are shaping the next generation of berries. By boosting resilience, enhancing flavor, and partnering across AGTECH, Driscoll’s is advancing its “More Berries, Less Resources” vision while keeping consumers at the center of every decision.
Rounding out the block, Room 4 welcomed Katie Holman, VP Supply Chain, Meals and Baking at General Mills, who focused on building agile, resilient supply chains that can withstand disruption and support sustainable growth. By aligning planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics—and empowering high-performing teams—General Mills is keeping its supply chain strategy perfectly seasoned for both current performance and future expansion.
The afternoon then moved into some workshops, giving attendees a chance to explore practical solutions and technologies shaping the future of food manufacturing.
In Room 1, Ethan Waldie, CEO & Co-Founder at Ferry, focused on deploying trusted AI in manufacturing operations, showing how guardrailed AI agents, a solid data foundation, and human-in-the-loop design can boost performance while maintaining accuracy and reliability.
Over in Room 2, Kyle Jenson, VP, Sales at BIOIONIX, unpacked “sustainability with ROI”—demonstrating how eliminating harsh chemicals, saving water, and using natural sanitization solutions can improve food safety, worker safety, and overall costs.
In Room 3, Nader Gubein, National Accounts Manager at Big Joe Forklifts, explored electrification in the industrial lift truck market, highlighting how lithium-ion technology, fast charging, and new truck designs are reshaping material handling and opening the door to future automation.
Meanwhile, Room 4 hosted Billy Daniel, Senior Director, Sales and Market Development at System Logistics, who covered new automation concepts for storage and distribution—from robotics and smart systems to AI-driven visibility—showing how automated picking and guided technologies are reducing errors, speeding fulfillment, and increasing warehouse efficiency.
Following the lively morning, we moved on to our Lunch and Learn Roundtable discussions. These conversations dove into key trends and challenges in the industry, led by leaders from TraceGains, QAD Redzone, Rentokil, Oliver Wight Americas, Infor, Tractian, Effex Management Solutions, AMEND Consulting, TEC Services, Squint, Vector, and Oracle.
After the workshops, attendees reconvened for another round of stream sessions, diving deeper into the core themes of process optimization, quality, innovation, and supply chain.
In the Room 1, Michael Wojtowicz, EVP, Supply Chain and Operations at Carl Buddig And Co., explored how to scale food manufacturing to drive sustainable growth. He focused on building agile operational frameworks, strengthening cross-site consistency, improving workforce training and engagement, and enhancing supply chain visibility—all while protecting food safety, compliance, and product quality.
Room 2 featured Campbell Mitchell, Head, Food Safety and Compliance at Kraft Heinz, who discussed transforming quality with AI. Campbell showed how AI can predict food safety risks, streamline QC processes, enable real-time “source-to-shelf” tracking, and support proactive FSQA issue resolution, all while simplifying compliance through advanced monitoring and automated reporting.
In Room 3, Takashi Nakamura, Ph.D, VP, Corporate R&D and Food Safety at Fresh Del Monte, joined Mary Ellen Kuhn, Executive Editor, Food Technology at IFT, to explore innovating for a safer and more sustainable food future. They highlighted R&D approaches to enhance safety, freshness, and shelf life, the role of data analytics in global food safety systems, and how sustainability and circular economy principles are being built into product development and team structures.
Finally, in Room 4, the Supply Chain stream welcomed Catherine Davidson, VP, Supply Chain, Food Safety and Quality at PepsiCo, Sabra, who spoke on integrating food safety and quality into supply chain strategy. She emphasized standardized protocols, data-driven monitoring, supplier collaboration, technology-enabled traceability, and training programs that embed food safety across the supply chain—ensuring operations stay aligned with both regulatory requirements and industry best practices.
From there, the agenda shifted into another round of hands-on workshops, each tackling a different operational challenge.
In Room 1, Patrick Heiser, VP, Sales, Americas and Europe at Nanoprecise Sci Corp, dug into hidden energy loss, showing how Energy-Centered Maintenance and AI monitoring can uncover what traditional metrics miss and turn maintenance into a lever for efficiency and sustainability.
Meanwhile, in Room 2, Chester Boyt, Chief Revenue Officer at Amerisan, focused on the human side of operations, sharing tangible ways to strengthen food safety culture through 5S, clear leadership vision, and engaged, well-trained frontline teams.
Over in Room 3, Carter Lloyds, Chief Marketing Officer at Indeavor, turned the spotlight to workforce performance, demonstrating how smart scheduling and real-time labor data reduce overtime, cut manual admin, and improve overall utilization.
Finally, in Room 4, Job Sollman, Director, Field Operations at Augmentir, connected it all back to the frontline, highlighting how AI-driven connected worker tools—from digital checklists to smart workflows—can improve food safety, speed onboarding, and give leaders sharper operational visibility.
In the mid-afternoon, the energy shifted into Happy Hour, Networking, and Pre-Arranged 1-2-1 Meetings, sponsored by Ferry. This dedicated block gave attendees a chance to step out of the session rooms, recharge, and deepen conversations—using curated 1-2-1 meetings and informal discussions to turn the day’s insights into concrete connections and potential collaborations.
As sessions picked back up, Hailey Fernandez, Chief Administrative Officer at Effex Management Solutions, led an afternoon plenary on how innovative workforce strategies fuel food manufacturing success—comparing traditional staffing with tailored workforce models, and showing how automation and AI can enhance, not replace, human roles on the plant floor.
The final executive panel then explored the future of operational excellence, covering talent, technology, culture, and cross-functional alignment. Panelists included:
Day 1 then flowed into a networking drinks reception, sponsored by Squint, where attendees continued the conversation in a more relaxed setting and built on the connections formed throughout the day.
We rolled into Day 2 with a dynamic Women in Leadership panel—an inspirational way to kick off the day!
Jaime Boyes, SVP, R&D, Mars Wrigley North America
Becky Crane, VP, Manufacturing and Engineering, General Mills
Caitlin Munoz, General Manager, PaperTech
Catherine Zimmerman, VP, Global EHS and Sustainability, Ingredion
Suzanne Francisco, VP, Supply Chain, American Foods Group
Catherine Davidson, VP, Supply Chain, Food Safety and Quality, PepsiCo, Sabra
Following the panel, we had our chair's opening remarks where we were welcomed by Mark Short, VP, Business Transformation and Regional General Manager at Land O'Lakes who served as our Room 1 emcee for day 2.
After the Women in Leadership panel, Day 2 moved into the Opening Keynote with Kimberli Carroll, President and CEO, Ruiz Foods, who shared how stronger collaboration across manufacturing operations is key to competing in the frozen food space—linking vision, cross-functional teamwork, and smart systems to better efficiency, communication, and product quality.
Next, a plenary session with Natalia Ortega, Director, Operations at Sazón GOYA, and Mikael Bengtsson, Director, Industry and Solution Strategy, Food & Beverage at Infor, explored how to close the value gap of technology in F&B manufacturing. Using insights from 500 F&B executives, they highlighted that agility, data-driven cultures, and customer focus are what turn digital investments into real business impact.
From there, attendees moved into a set of targeted workshops:
Room 1 – Rockwell Automation: Lachlan Stokes, Digital Services Sales Executive, CPG, and Joe Loridas, Enterprise Software Sales Executive, shared how effective yield management helps CPG manufacturers pinpoint losses, improve decisions, and set the stage for AI/ML.
Room 2 – Coupa: Nari Viswanathan, Senior Director, Supply Chain, outlined supplier collaboration strategies to secure ingredients, improve supply assurance, and design more resilient networks.
Room 3 – L2L: Rob Green, Senior Manufacturing Solutions Engineer, walked through practical ways to cut downtime and overtime by empowering frontline teams with connected tools—backed by multi-million–dollar savings case studies.
Room 4 – SupplyPike: Clinton Rhodes, Senior Product Manager, and Danielle Gloy, Content Marketing Manager, presented a revenue loss playbook for major retailers, using analytics and automation to reduce chargebacks, recover lost revenue, and improve cash flow.
After our final round of networking and 1-2-1 meetings, attendees were feeling energized for more executive speaker sessions and workshops.
In Room 1, Becky Crane walked through how General Mills is scaling digital manufacturing across a global footprint. She highlighted the importance of building scalable digital frameworks that connect sites, lines, and teams—turning isolated data points into actionable insights in real time. Attendees heard how AI-powered tools are being deployed to streamline processes, reduce costs, and support faster decision-making at every level, from operators to regional leaders.
Down the hall, Tola Alade-Lambo outlined how McCain Foods is strengthening supplier quality programs to reduce upstream risks and protect high-volume operations. Using a salt supplier recall case study, she walked through the role of robust root cause analysis in preventing repeat incidents and safeguarding brand trust. Tola emphasized the balance between standardization and agility—showing how consistent processes, shared metrics, and clear escalation paths help multi-facility networks respond faster when issues arise.
In Room 3, Suzanne Francisco addressed the intersection of innovation and supply chain resilience. She shared how American Foods Group is strengthening strategic supplier partnerships to improve agility and mitigate disruptions, particularly in a volatile demand and sourcing environment.
Finally, in Room 4 Kristen Daihes outlined Mars Snacking’s holistic change framework for modernizing global supply chain operations, emphasizing that technology alone is not the answer without the right capabilities and ways of working. She shared pragmatic use cases, including the application of digital twins in manufacturing and early steps with agentic AI to support smarter planning and execution.
We then shifted back into our workshops.
Room 1 - Brian Zapf, Principal at L.E.K Consulting and Katie Holman VP Supply Chain, Meals and Baking at General Mills unpacked how to move beyond simple SKU cuts toward true end-to-end supply chain simplification.
Room 2 - Paul Bradley, Senior Director, Product Marketing at TraceGains walked through the current state of generative AI in food manufacturing, how to set meaningful goals and success metrics, and what leaders should look for around data security, accuracy, and partner selection to ensure AI investments deliver measurable ROI
Room 3 - Carl-Emil Grøn Fuglesang, CEO at Reshape Biotech showcased how robotics and AI are transforming microbiology workflows in both R&D and QC.
Room 4 - Johannes Gudmundsson, CEO and Founder at Inecta demonstrated how real-time ERP visibility can strengthen traceability and compliance, reduce waste through smarter planning and forecasting, and support more resilient, data-driven supply chains.
Moving back to our stream sessions, John Adler, SVP, Physical Product, Wonder Group, joined Mary Ellen Kuhn, Executive Editor, Food Technology at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) for a fireside chat on how Blue Apron unites innovation and efficiency to deliver a stronger customer experience. The conversation explored how closely examining customer needs should influence manufacturing and operations decisions at every step—from product design and portioning through packaging and fulfillment.
We also had Israel Santiesteban, SVP, Supply Chain Management at Schreiber Foods, who discussed how the company is “scaling smarter” with an agile, customer-focused supply chain. He described how Schreiber is designing adaptable, end-to-end networks capable of serving both private label and branded customers with speed and reliability.
After an action packed morning, we moved in to our Day 2 Lunch and Learn Roundtables. These discussions featured key insights from speakers at McCain Foods, Barry Callebaut Group, Post Consumer Brands, Ocean Spray, West Liberty Foods, Ferrara, Kellanova and Kraft Heinz.
On to the final stretch! The final plenary brought the focus squarely onto resilience and reliability. Leo Kepple Borba, Director, Account Management and Applications at Tractian, and Gowrav Sharma, Global Director, Digital Manufacturing at Ingredion, explored how digital maintenance is becoming a critical pillar of operational performance in food and beverage manufacturing.
The final panel of the day brought together a cross-functional group of leaders to talk about what it really takes to move ideas from concept to commercial reality. The discussion featured:
- Mark Short, VP, Business Transformation and Regional General Manager, Land O'Lakes
- Rob Daleman, VP, Marketing, FacilityOS
- Adam Metz, Senior Director, Manufacturing Quality, Ferrara
- Mark Nisbet, Director, Product Development, Mars
- Israel Santiesteban, SVP, Supply Chain Management, Schreiber Foods
To recognize the incredible engagement from our attendees, we’re excited to announce our prize winners!
Big congratulations to Allison DeGraffenreid, Bridget Snider, and Prem Thakur as our networking prize winners, and Akeysha Headley as our survey prize winner!
As the 2025 American Food Manufacturing Summit came to a close, we extend our sincere thanks to all the incredible delegates, speakers, and sponsors who made this year’s edition such a success. Your insights, collaboration, and engagement are helping to shape the future of food and beverage manufacturing—advancing innovation, efficiency, quality, and resilience across the sector.
And we’re just getting started.
Visit foodmansummit.com to learn more and secure your place at our next American Food Manufacturing Summit, taking place November 2–3, 2026 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Chicago, IL.
“The Summit provided an exceptional platform for industry leaders to exchange insights and strategies that drive excellence across the food sector. The discussions on emerging risks, regulatory trends, and technology-driven solutions were both relevant and actionable. I left the event with renewed focus and valuable perspectives to further strengthen our organization’s food safety and quality culture.”
Leolino Maglasang, VP of Food Safety & Quality @ The Cheesecake Factory
“Great speakers, engaging conversations and relevant topics.”
Fernando Garcia Vidal, VP Engineering @ Monogram Foods
“I enjoyed the topics, networking and vendor 1-2-1 sessions. It was good to reconnect with people I know and expand my network. I would like to attend future summits.”
Jaclyn Miles, Senior Director of Food Safety and Quality @ Sabrosura Foods
“This is an extremely valuable event where we can connect directly with the decision makers in the accounts where we are trying to grow.”
Dan Schmidt, Director of Sales and Marketing @ TuffWrap
“This was a great opportunity to network with many in the industry who I didn’t know or whom I had not met 1:1.”
Prem Thakur, QA Director @ Kerry Group
“It was a wonderful experience that provided great insights into AI usage in the food industry, as well as insights into predictive modelling for the food industry.”
Ginger Petway, Director of Quality Assurance @ Cerelia USA Bakery Inc
“Our experience at the conference has been very positive. We had productive meetings and engaging conversations with both potential and existing partners. The Generis team has been great, checking in and keeping everything on track.”
Korrin Doyle, Director of Business Development @ GDI Ainsworth
“Very fruitful, lots of engagement with our key customer profiles, super well organized. The Generis staff has been on top of it and really helpful!”
Clinton Rhodes, Senior Product Manager @ SupplyPike
Learn more about our upcoming 2026 North American events, and secure your spot today:
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